


String Theory

by Bam4Me



Series: Fluid Classification [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Play, Brat Tony, Bucky Barnes Hoards Yarn, Bucky Barnes Knits, Cat Tony Stark, Dom Bucky Barnes, Jewish Bucky Barnes, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Non-Sexual Kink, Non-Sexual Submission, Pet Play, Sub Tony Stark, daddy!Bucky, little!steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 12:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13146582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: There was something about yarn.





	String Theory

**Author's Note:**

> Heh... hi... bye...

“Tony, babe, Tony, really? How did you even do that-” Bucky stopped, halfway into the hallway and let out the loudest groan, knocking his head against the doorframe to his bedroom with a solid thunk. “Kitten,  _ no _ .”

 

The words came out like a sad little whisper, almost pathetic, a little bit like he might cry. But he didn’t. He may be sort of a mess emotionally right now because of the brain memory thingy Tony hooks him up to once a week, but he’s not about to cry over… over…  _ this _ .

 

Steve came out of his bedroom across the hallway, looked around at the mess for a second, and for a moment Bucky was  _ grateful _ that Steve was fully adult right now, because that meant he wouldn’t have to deal with the-

 

Nevermind. Bucky forgot for a moment that while little Steve was a cute little bugger who asked all sorts of invasive questions sometimes, his best friend was an  _ asshole _ while big. Like, a complete jerk. 

 

Steve was laughing so hard he’d gone into the breathless wheezing stage, holding his stomach while he pointed rudely at Bucky’s sad form in the doorway. “You’ve been called out. By  _ your own sub _ ! Oh my god.”

 

In the hallway, strewn all about, was Bucky’s slightly terrible obsession.

 

Handspun wool yarn, hand dyed and sold on Etsy, a site he was becoming addicted to. It was all over. There was so much of it.

 

Tony hadn’t even touched the cheap stuff either, no, there was a full shelf in his room, low to the ground where curious kittens can reach,  _ full _ of store brand stuff that he’d loved the feel of, but no, Tony, his sweet baby kitten, light of his life, the man who literally repaired Bucky’s brain, had outed the entire closet full of all of the expensive stuff. The stuff he bought on an impulse buy at three am when he’d woken up from a bad dream but wasn’t shaking too bad not to use his computer, when he’d needed something to distract himself.

 

He’d never really understood the idea of an impulse buy before finding all the good, handspun wool online. There were amazing colours, and so soft.

 

He looked over at Steve, who was grinning at him like an asshole, and sighed, tossing his arms up in defeat. “Steven people worked very hard to make all this yarn and I’m only trying to help others gain income, alright?”

 

That only made his friend wheeze harder. Bucky thought about telling him that most of it was on sale as further justification… but none of them were ever on sale…

 

See, as a knitter himself, he understood just how hard other people worked on spinning fiber and knitting clothes, so he appreciated everything he had, but, he also understood that with an army compensation of over seventy years of POW buildup, and the monthly allowance that Tony gave -see; forced upon- them, he knew that he could afford what a lot of people couldn’t… so when he found a 500 yard skein of merino/silk yarn blend in a galaxy colour -which would make an amazing blanket for Stevie for Hanukkah, if he got like four skeins of it- at twenty dollars a skein… well… it’s no one’s business but his and Jarvis’s that he’d bought five of them. 

 

The fact that his kitten was spreading his dirty secret all over the compound like a little jerk who maybe needs a scolding and maybe a bop on the nose -just to show him who’s boss- has really put a dampener in his day. Now he has to  _ find _ the little bugger and also clean up this mess.

 

Alas, this is the life of a daddy. Even a daddy to a kitten who’s never actually called him daddy before, but he’s still firm in his conviction -and a few of the therapy sessions that jerk Sam made him go to- that no matter what his sub was, he was still allowed to identify as a daddy. Tony had said he was okay with it anyways.

 

Steve, thought he was a complete and untrusting jerk who didn’t deserve any Hanukkah gifts -but he was still going to give them to him because he had a fondness for watching little Stevie opening presents… that’s a memory, a rare, but fond memory, that he remembered sometime around June when he found the galaxy yarn and decided it would be perfect for him- helped Bucky clean up all the yarn hanks out of the hallway. Bucky was just glad Tony had gotten into the unopened stuff, or Bucky would be spending a few hours untangling it all after he dumped them out of the bags him and Steve had were stuffing it all in.

 

Steve was down the hall and around the corner when Bucky was coming back with an emptied back when he heard more snickering. “I found the kitten.”

 

Bucky came to stand next to him in the doorway to the living room. Tony had managed to build a nest in the middle of the room, made of stolen couch cushions and pillows, even a throw blanket that he’d managed to pull off the back of the couch.

 

He wasn’t napping, but he was contentedly nuzzling his face against one of the stolen hanks of wool with a happy rumbling in his chest. Bucky made a mental note to figure out what that one was made of and make Tony a snuggle blanket out of it. 

 

“Kitten, sweetie…” He trailed off, unsure where to go with this. Steve was just grinning at him while he went back to gathering up yarn around the pleased kitten to bring back to Bucky’s room. He sighed for the millionth time. “I’m thinking of putting a bell on you, buddy.”

 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Rhodes stuck his head out of the kitchen with a bowl of cake batter in one hand and a chef’s hat on his head. Which meant that Natasha was baking with him because she was the only one who ever insisted that they should all wear chefs hats. She thought they were pretty.

 

Which meant she was likely to try and convince Rhodes to let her eat at least half the cake. Which Bucky  _ would _ be worried about, but Rhodes has been Tony’s primary caregiver for over twenty years, and that man was  _ strict _ with Tony, so he’d be fine. A cranky eleven year old had nothing on a begging kitten.

 

“He doesn’t like bells?”

 

Rhodey snorted, looking back into the kitchen for a moment, obviously about to put the cake batter down, before thinking better of it -which was smart of him, because when super soldier serum keeps you from getting sick at raw eggs, Sam was having the time of his life keeping Natasha and Steve from eating the weirdest shit, so that cake batter was better off with Rhodes- and just walking into the living room with it. “God no, he  _ loves _ bells. I put a bell on him a long time ago… gosh he must have been barely twenty, it was when I had my first break from active duty for a while so I’d been trying to get him settled because he was  _ manic _ from lack of sleep. I put a bell on him, thinking he’d like it and drop faster. I have never heard anything so annoying in my life. He went from zero to sixty in a minute, was running all over the mansion to make the bell ring, I ended up having to take it away from him while he was snoozing later.”

 

Bucky snorted, looking purely amused. “Maybe it was a fluke? Just too tired and easily amused?”

 

“No, oh god it gets worse. You see, I’m apparently a slow learner, so I’ve tried this at least once every two years since. I give him a bell, he goes completely insane for a week and makes me want to throw something, and then I hide it so he’ll finally calm down again. It’s weird and normally headspace is a calming thing for him, but I swear, as soon as he hears a bell he turns manic and wired. It’s so weird.”

 

Bucky was fighting the strong impulse to give the kitten a bell so he could live this experience for himself. Rhodes gave him a long look, like he knew what Bucky was thinking, before turning back around with a sigh.

 

“It’s your funeral. Just remember he’ll cry if you take away the bell while he’s watching, so get ready to chase him down or hunt out hiding spots.”

 

***

 

As it turns out, Rhodey is the most good all knowing amazing perfect person to ever exist… and Bucky should have listened to him.

 

“Tony, how did you even get up there?”

 

Steve was giggling like a dork behind him while he watched Bucky contemplate how to get the glaring kitten down from off an eight foot shelf. “Stevie, baby, how did he get up there?”

 

Steve giggled more, not looking guilty in the slightest. “You was trying to catch the kitty before he got hurt, but then you had to go get Clint out of the laundry chute when he got stuck because puppies can’t be left alone either, and so I caught the kitty and was taking him back to you, but he was climbing up on my shoulders and grabbed onto the shelf and I could tell he wasn’t gonna let go and I didn’t know what to do, so I helped him up and now he’s there.”

 

Steve’s sentence was punctuated when the bell started ringing again, and Bucky let out a little sigh, looking up when Tony’s head disappeared from over the side of the shelf and he went back to playing with his new favorite toy ever in existence.

 

He gave Steve a thin lipped look, and Steve seemed to get shy, shuffling his feet a little. Bucky’s smile turned genuine and loving. “Thank you for trying to catch him, honey, that was  _ very _ thoughtful of you.”

 

Steve’s chest puffed up a little, looking happy at having been useful. “He’s yours, which means he’s sorta like my cousin, so that means I gotta watch out for him. He’s cute.”

 

Steve’s cheeks heated up a little and Bucky decided not to comment on that, thinking it was so utterly adorable that Steve loved Tony so much. God that was too cute.

 

“Stevie, do you think you can be a big boy and go help watch the puppies and the baby in the living room for me?” Of course, Jarvis would tell him if any of the subs needed anything, but it was Tuesday, which meant that Natasha and Wanda were off at ballet practice today, and Bucky had volunteered to watch all the littles and pets… because he was a glutton for punishment.

 

Stevie was being the sweetest little helper today, and it was adorable to see, but he tended to make situations like this more… worse, than better. God Bucky loved him so damn much.

 

Steve nodded with a grin on his face. “Okie dokie, I’m gonna play with them all and get snuggles and you join us when the kitten is back to normal. He’s acting really funny today.”

 

Bucky watched him go with a little sigh, before moving to the nearest hall closet and pulling out a step stool. He put in next to the shelf and climbed up so he was facing his wayward kitten.

 

Tony looked up at him with a delighted mewl, licked Bucky’s nose while upsidedown, and then started nuzzling up into him like he was just the most  _ well behaved _ little thing in the world.

 

Pure evil.

 

“Yes yes, I know, you’re very cute and entirely innocent of your crimes, such a good boy, now will you please come down? I promise to give you  _ so _ many snuggles.”

 

Tony seemed to think that over -a move that made Bucky realize he was only half in headspace and probably halfway fucking with him right now, since Tony generally went entirely by instinct when he was in headspace- before flipping over and crawling over to the edge of the shelf. Bucky didn’t waste any time waiting before he pulled the kitten off the shelf and to his chest, not wanting to risk his boy falling. 

 

When he had his kitten safely in his arms, he gave a little sigh and started heading back into the chaos that had become the living room, the little bell ringing in his eyes while he walked. He just hoped he could sneak it away while Tony was napping.

 

***

 

Wednesday was a knitting day. There was no mission for SHIELD this week, because after a full month of non-stop missions Tony had thrown a fit and made Fury agree to only send Bucky, Steve, Natasha and Clint on a maximum of one mission a week because none of them had had a chance to relax the entire month, and the longer Steve went without having a littlespace day, the jumpier he got, and Clint had actually bit Phil the last time he’d been in pupspace because of how keyed up he’d been that time.

 

It was fucking them all up. Bucky already went on a mission this week on Sunday, nearly lost a  _ second _ arm in a move that had lead to Tony throwing a Starktab at agent Hill when he got back and had been sitting in SHIELD’s new, Hyrda-free base, and Bucky had ended up giving him a spanking for later.

 

They were all keyed up. Of course, looking back on that now, that spanking had probably been why Tony had destroyed Bucky’s yarn stash the next morning. As much as their relationship was traditional like Bucky had grown up with, Tony had a brat streak a mile wide, and the pet submissive had probably been worried about Bucky using his arm again so fast after it had healed. It hadn’t hurt Bucky, but little anxieties like that piled up until Tony had to let them out somewhere. Usually in the form of destroying things or pestering other subs until a fight broke out.

 

His boy was surprisingly volatile.

 

But that meant that today was a knitting day, which is good because he has projects to finish.

 

He let out a little huff when the couch dipped down and moved his hands a little out of the way when Tony pushed up into his lap. Bucky grinned and leaned down enough that Tony could press a kiss to his lip before settling down to watch Bucky knit.

 

“Where’d the kids go?”

 

Tony hummed, watching him move his hands for a few more seconds. “Natasha and Steve are playing with bugs outside. I left them with Wade. Hopefully they don’t terrorize Peter too much. He doesn’t like bugs.” Which was adorably ironic.

 

“Did you three have a fun time doing science in your lab?”

 

Tony snorted once, amused. “Steve cried a little when the volcano exploded and Natasha looked like she was ready to fight it. Note to self, little Steve is a crybaby.”

 

Bucky stopped knitting just long enough to reach over and smack Tony on the thigh. “That’s not nice to say. He’s only six.”

 

“He says he’s seven today.”

 

“He’s still just a little boy, and sometimes little boys get startled. It’s not nice to tease.”

 

Tony sighed, stretching out against Bucky’s leg. He wasn’t in kittenspace right now, but he was approaching that same floating space that he got to when him and Bucky scene together. Bucky’s fingers paused for a moment, and he just stared at Tony, watching the man give a dreamy little sigh, rubbing the fabric with two fingers.

 

“Babe? Tony you with me sweetie?”

 

Tony looked up at him with big trusting eyes that he only ever got when he was falling down deep.

 

Bucky looked between Tony and the knitting in his hands before his brain put two and two together. “Tony, does knitting send you under?”

 

Tony let out a cubish little noise, leaning in so he could cuddle up into his Dom. “Sometimes. I like your hands. And yarn. I think that might be a new thing. The knitting that is, not the yarn. I’ve always liked yarn.”

 

Bucky set the yarn to the side and pulled Tony up into his lap so they were cuddled together. “Is that so?”

 

Tony nodded, a dreamy little smile on his face. “When we were in college, the first time me and Rhodey started playing, he got me yarn and I got all tangled up in it, but he didn’t get mad at me like my dad would have. He thought it was cute. Yarn was my favorite toy after that.”

 

Bucky  _ seriously _ had to resist the urge to pepper Tony’s face with kisses right now. He was so damn sweet and clingy and completely trusting. It wasn’t that deep -since Tony was still able to talk, and he rarely was after they had a scene together- but he was relaxed and pliant.

 

“You are adorable.”

 

He couldn’t resist planting a wet smack on Tony’s face this time, and Tony just grinned at him. “Yeah, I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> I MEANT to make a point about something in the last part... but fuck it I dunno...


End file.
